Celebrating Picasso: Photographs by David Douglas Duncan

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

El Paso Museum of Art1 Arts Festival PlazaEl PasoTX79901

American David Douglas Duncan (b. 1916) was an immensely courageous and talented combat photographer, beginning with his experience in the Pacific theater of World War II. After the war, Duncan became a photographer for Life magazine, covering conflicts all over the world including the Korean and Vietnam Wars. As a former Marine himself, Duncan had deep sympathy for the average man in uniform. His images are at once raw and deeply humane, emphasizing the personal experience of war—the danger, exhaustion, and emotion.

In 1956, impressed by the art of Pablo Picasso, Duncan presented himself at the artist’s summer home, the Villa la Californie in southern France. He was immediately welcomed and the intimacy of their friendship is indicated by Duncan’s very first photograph of Picasso—soaking in his bathtub! Until the artist’s death in 1973, Duncan returned often to visit and photograph, creating an unparalleled visual record of the great artist at work and at play.